Defense Matters - Ep. 004: Dr. Kim Cragin on Foreign Fighters and Their Increasing Role in Global Conflicts

Dr. Kim Cragin of the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies is speaking on Foreign Fighters and Their Increasing Role in Global Conflicts. Dr. Cragin discusses where the majority of fighters are coming from, how they are traveling to conflict zones, the risks of foreign fighter returnees, and what role they play in conflicts around the world. She touches on the middle east primarily but discusses how ISIS and Al Qaeda have in the past and are currently still using foreign fighters to project their agenda around the globe.

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Links for Mentioned Publications:

A Strategy to Counter ISIL as a Transregional Threat

http://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE228.html

Measuring the Popular Resonance of Daesh's Propaganda

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1527&context=jss

The November 2015 Paris Attacks: The Impact of Foreign Fighter Returnees

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0030438717300091/1-s2.0-S0030438717300091-main.pdf?_tid=a7ba2a66-5c36-11e7-b8c2-00000aab0f02&acdnat=1498677727_84b1654719b92bee612f9dbabc11c30f

The Clash of Civilizations?

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20045621?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

To Undermine ISIS, We Should Welcome Syrian Refugees

http://www.rand.org/blog/2015/12/to-undermine-isis-we-should-welcome-syrian-refugees.html

Defense Matters Season 1 is brought to you by a generous contribution from the United Technologies Corporation.